The greatest tragedy in
our life was the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq on 02.08.1990 because of which many
of us suffered too much financially and because of this our family members too
suffered along with us. Life
was till that time going smoothly for MANY of us
but with it, the invasion, everything went upside down since we fell into financial bankruptcy. The financial
crisis were so deep that some Kuwait evacuees from invaded Kuwait suffered
mental strokes and other different sicknesses and many of them even died out of
shock not knowing how to survive in such a situation.
In fact, I was keeping a track of the obituaries appearing in Herald
during that time whence I noticed continuously for so many weeks one or two obituaries appearing per week of
persons ex Kuwait, Kuwait returnees. This tragic event of Kuwaitkars made some
people very happy and among these people were priests one of them was in fact
enjoyed our assistance which we rendered to him in collecting funds from
Kuwait for his activities and projects in Goa.
Besides him there were others too following him because I was demanding
explanation of their expenses and transparency of our donations, they did not
like my way of exposing our donations to the public and what fund we sent to
them in Goa, they wanted everything to be done silently in the name of God.
They should have realized that we had obligations towards those Goans from whom
we collected the donations money which finally we sent to them. As for me I did not want to be doubted by our
donors in Kuwait and hence I wanted to open out every paisa received as donation from our donors in
Kuwait.
The greatest beneficiary of our largesse were the priests but when
Kuwait was invaded by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and when we organized a movement in
Goa by organising Public Meetings and Public Rallies in Panjim in support of
Kuwait’s liberation, none of the priests associated with us. In fact not even those who enjoyed our
financial benefits showed their
solidarity to Kuwait openly by actively supporting us by joining us in Panjim
in our Meetings and Rallies. Otherwise during that particular time almost every
week there were so many Rallies and Public Meetings at Azad Maidan in Panjim on
different issues, where so many Priests and Nuns seen participating but for our
Public Meetings and Rallies none of them participated, so great “BEIMAN” were
these so called Godly creatures wearing the holy robes when they were unholy. They had firm opinion that Kuwait will never
be liberated and Kuwaitkars who are barking like dogs in Panjim in the Public
Meetings and Public Rallies will achieve nothing. I fail to understand how our
priests the so called emissaries of God indicated their ingratitude to us and
especially for me when I did so much for them in my individual capacity. Were there no human hearts in them? Even the
wild animals would not indicate such a hard heartedness. Earlier, I never knew priests could come to
this ebb.
One priest in Mapusa said “Kuwaitkarank boot laglo tem borench
zalem”. Another priest at Old Goa when
we went to offer a Mass for our cause, he said mockingly “Zalem, tumchem anik
kitem urlam, Miss diun koslo faido?”. Likewise, many priests in Goa put salt on
our wounds which was unbearable at that particular time when we were already
sinking. It hurt us more because the
very persons who enjoyed our donations have criticized us for no fault of us. Our
Parish Priest even refused to conduct especial prayers for the war/invasion of
Kuwait victims when this priest knew how we Kuwaitkars supported the
Church activities financially and its School. Here I came to know that how
Satanisation of Priestly robes can be.
Here I came to know how cruel a priest can become.
There are a few who object my views expressed on this topic and they
accuse me for resurfacing this topic again.
In fact these idiots have done nothing compared to what I have done to
support the Priests especially before the invasion of Kuwait. It is very easy
to pass comment and to quote Biblical quotes but to collect funds is not easy
especially from Kuwait, some of those
who pass such comments were not even born at that time, one of them from Kuwait came up in life by using his
wife and preaching me “Padricho Sermao” when he is not even aware of what I
have done, for him to do what I did he will have to take one more birth, the
other objecting me by hiding his name under the petticoat of his concubine,
like him there are others too. If they
are true and genuine then they must express their views by identifying
themselves clearly and not by hiding their identities. This is the job of the
cowards.
Now some of the priests and other so called social workers are targeting
Goans from UK and elsewhere for donations for them, for their activities which
are morally upright and not upright, concerned Goans should be careful in
sending donations to these people, many of them are corrupt, they are spending
lavishly after their luxuries. Do not
allow them to misuse your donations and money, see that every donation is properly
used. Money is the cause of all evil deeds and when you get easy money you are
bound to spend it recklessly.
While concluding, let me quote one incident happened in Kuwait. One young Goan girl was selling Lottery
Coupons in the Church Compound in Kuwait City.
Suddenly, the then Maltese Bishop of Kuwait Monsg. Fraancis Mechallef
happened to reach there. He immediately
spotted that Lottery selling girl and asked her what she is doing? The girl replied “these Lottery Coupons are
sent from Goa by our Pe. Vigar to ollect fund to construct/repair our
Church. Then the Bishop asked her, do
you have a house for you as your own? She said no. Then the Bishop said “Why don’t you make
Lottery Coupons for collecting money for your house? Don’t you need a house for
you? She said “Yes I need”. Then the
Bishop said “come on, go ahead and I will also buy these Lotteries of yours. Then he told her, “you don’t bring this type
of Lottery business from your Church, your Goa Church is very rich, your Church
leaders in Goa should know how to collect funds for such ventures instead of
sending these coupons here. Your Pe.
Vigars and other priests don’t know how much difficulties you are facing in
this country. They think in Goa that money
is just falling from top”?
A.Veronica Fernandes.
